Search Results for: robert smith

Rome – Goth rockers The Cure are enjoying an unexpected revival, but frontman Robert Smith isn’t letting it go to his head. “It’s very flattering,” Smith told Reuters Television late on Thursday after performing at the MTV Europe Music Awards, his first MTV event in 15 years. “But I’m not stupid enough to think it’s an Indian summer. “We realize that this upsurge in media attention is almost entirely due to very good young bands picking up on The Cure,” added Smith, who wore his trademark red lipstick and heavy eyeliner under an unruly mop of hair. When asked whether… Read more »

It’s fitting that the title of the new Blink-182 single connotes permanence. The release of “Always” has given the band’s year-old untitled album unprecedented longevity. “It’s the first time we’ve ever had four singles,” singer/guitarist Tom DeLonge explained. “[This album] is like ‘The Little Engine That Could.’ We even talked about a fifth single. We’ve never done this before. It is kind of weird that we’re still around.” Since the band’s sixth album dropped last November, it’s yielded the singles “Feeling This,” “I Miss You,” “Down” and “Always,” which is expected to surface at radio next week. Should there be… Read more »

Brandy is bidding adios to her longtime record label, Atlantic Records, her publicist said Monday. The news might have something to do with the “Top of the World” chantuese no longer being, well, on top of the world. Once a staple of MTV and urban radio, the 25-year-old R&B singer has recently been eclipsed by a new crop of teenage divas. Despite solid reviews and a huge promotional push from Atlantic this past summer for her fourth release on the label, Afrodisiac, the disc quickly disappeared from the upper echelons of Billboard ‘s pop charts after a number three debut… Read more »

Sometimes, Washington is as hot as Bangkok. OK, I stole that line, but it was baking hot at RFK Stadium Saturday for the HFStival, the annual, all-day, relentlessly eclectic rock extravaganza put on by local radio station WHFS-FM (99.1). An estimated crowd of 60,000 blazed under a pre-summer sun, moseying in and out of the stadium from parking-lot attractions that included a forest of beer trucks, giant inflatable corporate logos, two more bandstands – one for national acts, the other for local acts such as Washington Social Club and Jimmie’s Chicken Shack – and, for the truly adventurous, a Ferris… Read more »

The big question as we enter 2004 is simply “Do you want some?” The answer will come when Liam Gallagher and elder brother Noel return to the fray with the new Oasis album later this year. Although to some the Mancunian brothers’ group may be too tied up with the hangover of ’90s Britpop to ever be a potent force again, they are still undoubtedly one of the biggest rock groups in the country. They do like to tread water, however, and a much-needed change in direction may finally come with the introduction of Death In Vegas man Richard Fearless… Read more »

They used to be irreverent punks out for cheap thrills and even cheaper laughs, but now Blink-182 are a changed band. Their untitled new record is more experimental and multidimensional than 2001’s Take Off Your Pants and Jacket, adding a variety of styles (electronic rock; jangly, melancholy pop; reflective alt-rock) to their foundation of bouncy beats and kinetic guitars. It’s also more lyrically developed, trading tales of adolescent relationships for more serious dilemmas of adulthood. As singer/guitarist Tom DeLonge sang in the band’s 1997 breakthrough hit “Dammit,” “I guess this is growing up.” Growing up has a lot to do… Read more »

When they’re onstage, the members of a Perfect Circle perform in fluid synergy, but behind the scenes all they seem to agree on is when to disagree. Band founder and guitarist Billy Howerdel was uninterested in releasing the moody, melodic “Weak and Powerless” as the first single from Thirteenth Step, and he was against using the cover art of a slug crawling across a woman’s face, which is why he gave singer Maynard James Keenan credit for all artwork. Currently, the bandmembers are torn between releasing the melancholy “Blue” or the bruising “The Outsider” as the second single. Bassist Jeordie… Read more »

Brandy didn’t want to wait nine months to find out whether she would have a boy or a girl. The 23-year-old singer-actress, who’s five months pregnant with her first child, is going to have a girl. “I always wanted to know what it was, so I can get the names together, and so when I do the baby shower, we know what to have,” Brandy told The Associated Press in a recent interview. “I’m planning a nursery, so now that I know that it’s a female, I can plan it around the female energy and things like that.” But finding… Read more »

Brandy is all grown-up – the former teen star is a now married woman. The singer-actress revealed Tuesday that she wed music producer Robert Smith last year. “I’ve fallen in love with a very warm, gentle, understanding and focused person,” Brandy, who turns 23 on Feb. 11, said in a statement. “This summer we married quietly. A new experience, a new day for me – I couldn’t be happier!” Brandy was 16 when she released her self-titled debut album, which sold over 1 million copies. Her hits include “I Wanna Be Down” and the No. 1 hit “The Boy Is… Read more »

British rock band the Cure mounted a farewell tour last year to promote what it billed as its last album, and had such a blast playing for more than half a million people in North America and Europe that it now hopes to return to the road in 2002. Retirement at age 42 just never suited the Cure’s leader, singer/guitarist Robert Smith, whose gloomy songs about death and despair have transfixed fans since the Cure released its first single in 1978. “The swan song was actually me… saying the group’s going to end,” Smith told Reuters in a recent interview.… Read more »